It has been 18 years since a Trail Gymnastics Club athlete has competed at the BC Winter Games. That drought will come to an end this February when Jasmine Wyatt makes the trip to Fort St. John as a member of the Zone 1 Kootenay Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG) team.
With team size, participant age, and competitive level restrictions, few WAG athletes in our area have the honour of taking part in the BC Games. Selected team members for the 2020 edition of the games were born in 2005 to 2010, and just six athletes in Junior Olympic Level Seven or Eight are permitted to be selected to each Zone team.
As first alternate, Wyatt was notified on Jan. 10 that she would be replacing another athlete who was forced to withdraw due to an unhealed injury. She will now prepare for the big trip north Feb. 20 to 23 alongside athletes from Cranbrook, Invermere and Kimberley.
The BC Winter Games are British Columbia’s biennial celebration of sport and community bringing together BC’s best emerging high-performance athletes, trained coaches, and certified officials for four days of competition. This experience is an important development opportunity and stepping stone towards higher level sport competitions.
Next month, Fort St. John will host the BC Winter Games for the first time in 35 years. Up to 1,800 volunteers will be responsible for planning and staging the Games, which will see up to 1,200 athletes, 300 coaches and 200 officials. The economic impact is estimated to be approximately $1.6-million.
“We Are North” is the tagline and branding for the 2020 Games and is the epitome of Fort St. John, the most northern community in BC to ever host the Games.